Shedding light on the Data Science and Analytics Degree Programme by NUS

By maltiso

It is a new degree programme jointly offered by the Department of Mathematics and the Department of Statistics and Applied Probability from the Faculty of Science, in collaboration with the School of Computing.


Obviously since both the Math and Statistics departments are heavily involved in designing its curricula, this course places much emphasis on training you in the statistical aspect of Data Science - hypothesis testing, regression, numerical methods, etc. In the current programme structure, there are only 3 compulsory Computer Science modules to be taken - Introduction to Programming, Data Structures and Algorthims, and Machine Learning.


It might be somewhat up for debate whether or not Data Science is a predominantly Computer Science or Statistics field. Personally, I feel that there are many fields in Computer Science that should be in every Data Scientist's toolkit/knowledge base. Things like database systems design and software engineering are of utmost importance. Furthermore, depending on your interests, this course does not focus on the 'interesting cutting edge' topics in Machine Learning, like computer vision and natural language processing. Therefore, if you do decide to enrol, taking a minor in Computer Science would serve as a strategic complement to the Major.


Data Science is all the rage now, and I do not see it dying down anytime soon. All the more you should go for it if you are also keen in the field of 'Artificial Intelligence'.


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